by Lucy Edington

Created on: August 03, 2009

We all have more things in our house than we actually need, but some of us are worse than others. The poor souls on 'How Clean is Your House?' are at one extreme and the incessantly house-proud people with not a trinket out of place are at the other; but most of us fit somewhere comfortably in between. I am starting my journey, after many years of despair, towards enjoying my home and the space in it. I have been able to do this through taking on board some of the advice from a website I will give the address for at the end of this article, but what follows is a three-step plan to getting oneself on the right track.

1. Write an action plan

You need to go around your home with a pad and pen and jot down exactly what needs to be sorted in your home. Divide your page into three columns: Where, Who and How Long. Just focus on the piles of jumbled possessions that are covering surfaces and floors, and taking over your storage spaces for the moment; and write down all the areas in need of attention under the 'where' column.

Once you have identified all clutter hot spots, put in the next column whose jurisdiction each area comes under. This means they will have to be consulted before you change anything.

In the last column, be realistic and estimate how long it will take to sort the clutter out in each vicinity. This will help you plan how to best tackle the job and whether it will need to be spread over a few days or not.

Next, I would transfer all this information into a spreadsheet and set a date by which each part needed to be done. Setting targets gives a sense of urgency and purpose, as well as achievement once the target is met.

2. Enlist help and tackle head on

A plan is no good if you don't execute it. Now you have broken the task of de-cluttering down into individual places and know how long each part of the task will take, try to get the relevant people to help you sort it out. If it is the kid's room that need an overhaul, they are going to have to be there to help you out with that, as it will mean they will respect the time it takes to keep things ordered and endeavour to not let it get out of control again. If the area belongs to your spouse, mention that it is in need of attention and again offer to help get things rolling, so that they move towards setting a time to do it instead of seeing it as a vague request. If all of the clutter belongs to you, turn on the motivating music and put aside a few bursts of time a week to sort

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